Manny Kimmel
Manny Kimmel, born Emmanuel Kimmel, was a notable underworld figure between the 1930s and 1960s. Founder of the Kinney Parking Company, a chain of parking lots and garages, which evolved into the media conglomerate Warner Communications, and ultimately the present day Time Warner media empire.
According to Connie Bruck,[1] he cooperated with the major racketeer and bootlegger in Newark, Abner Zwillman, leasing his garages for storage of liquor during the Prohibition Era. FBI kept tabs on him for his business dealings with known mafia figures, and compelled to testify in the trials of two of them, Abner Zwillman and Joe Adonis.[1]
An illegal bookie in his early years, running the numbers game and other illicit gambling bookmaking activities in New Jersey. Perhaps the biggest horseracing bookmaker in New York at one time, and owner of several racing horses himself. He is also known for his early forays into card counting in blackjack in the early fifties as the Mr. X in the classic book on card counting, Beat the Dealer by Edward O. Thorp.[2]
He is mentioned in at least two other historical books (according to Amazon), including the Master of the Game: Steve Ross and the Creation of Time Warner by Connie Bruck.[1] In this well-known book, the multi-year evolution of the company Kimmel founded, Kinney Parking Company, into Time Warner of today is described.
References
- 1 2 3 Master of the Game: Steve Ross and the Creation of Time Warner by Connie Bruck, pp.29-30
- ↑ Pogue, David. "Wanna Bet?", The New York Times, September 25, 2005. Accessed September 28, 2008.